Apache's New Focus Is Encouraging

By

Bret Jensen

| Sep 3, 2013 | 12:00 PM EDT

I have booked nice gains over the last year with a couple of large energy concerns, Hess Corporation (HES) and ConocoPhillips (COP). In contrast to oil giants Chevron (CVX) and ExxonMobil (XOM), whose stocks have underperformed the market in 2013, these two smaller energy companies have made numerous shareholder-friendly moves.

Hess, prodded by activists, has sold overseas properties and non-core operating assets to pay down debt and to become a more focused North American producer. The stock is up approximately 50% since late last year as a result. ConocoPhillips has sold overseas assets and spun out its retail as well as its refinery assets. Its refinery spinoff Phillips66 (PSX) is up some 75% since becoming its own separate entity....374 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.

Read the full story and get access to the Real Money Pro trading floor.

There’s no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.